Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Joshua John Miller
Starring: Russell Crowe, Ryan Sympkins, Sam Worthington, Chloe Bailey, Adam Goldberg, David Hyde
Pierce, Marcenae Lynette, Tracey Bonner, Samantha Mathis, Adrian
Pasdar
You wait your whole life for a schlocky exorcism movie starring
Russell Crowe only for two to come along at once. Hot on the heels of
the entertaining if unoriginal The Pope's Exorcist comes writer/director Joshua John Miller's
The Exorcism. Let's face it, all of these movies are to some degree knockoffs of
William Friedkin's The Exorcist. But The Exorcism isn't simply another
Exorcist wannabe; it's intrinsically tied in to Friedkin's
film.
Miller, whom horror fans will know as the vampire kid from Kathryn
Bigelow's Near Dark, is the son of actor Jason Miller, whose most famous role was that of
The Exorcist's troubled priest, Father Karras. In Miller's film, Crowe plays an actor
named Anthony Miller, which was Jason Miller's original name before he
adopted his stage name. With Crowe's Anthony taking on the role of a priest
suffering a crisis of faith in a remake of The Exorcist, it's safe to say Miller Junior might be working through some daddy issues
here.
Miller's film is part backstage drama, part Exorcist knockoff
of the type that were popular in the '70s, with scenes that feel more
indebted to William Girdler's Abby and Ovidio Assonitis's
Beyond the Door
than to Friedkin's film. If you're a fan of The Exorcist (who
isn't?) you'll appreciate the inside baseball element of Miller's film with
all its Easter eggs, and if you're a fan of '70s
Exorcist rip-offs (some of us are) you'll enjoy its schlockier
elements.
Crowe's Anthony is an actor struggling to revive his career after spending
time in rehab for addiction issues. Auditioning for the aforementioned role
of the Father Karras figure, Anthony assumes he's blown his chances, but the
director, Peter (Adam Goldberg, channelling Friedkin), sees something
in Anthony's damaged soul and gives him the part. In the prologue we saw how
the role came up for grabs, with the original actor killed by some unseen
force. Taking on his estranged teenage daughter Leigh (Ryan Simpkins)
as his personal assistant, Anthony throws himself into the role he hopes
will save his career.
As the shoot progresses, Anthony finds himself haunted by demons, both
psychological and literal. Goaded by Peter, who apes Friedkin's infamous
tactics of psychologically torturing his actors, Anthony finds suppressed
memories of childhood abuse at the hands of a priest invading his thoughts.
He begins sleepwalking and speaking Latin in his sleep. Leigh worries her
father has succumbed to his addictions again, but as his behaviour becomes
increasingly disturbing it becomes clear something far more inexplicable has
taken hold of his soul.
The Exorcism was originally shot in 2019 but deemed
unreleasable. It was only the success of 2023's
The Pope's Exorcist that saw it taken down off the shelf and
reassessed as a now viable property. Extensive reshoots were scheduled and
voila, it's now out in the world. Given its troubled history, Miller's film
is far less messy than you might expect. It manages to tell a complete story
in coherent fashion, but you can't help wonder if Miller's original cut
might have focussed more on the idea of an actor using a role to work
through their psychological torment. The movie's rather generic climax feels
tacked on in the hopes of appeasing an audience expecting a more mainstream
horror movie, so it's not hard to assume it's a product of the reshoots. The
horror elements are relatively well handled, with Miller displaying an eye
for a creepy setup, but it's the backstage drama that's more compelling,
especially for fans of The Exorcist, with much of the film playing out on a reconstruction of Ellen Burstyn's
suburban home from that film.
The real highlight is Crowe's committed performance. Unlike his character,
Crowe can't be accused of sleepwalking through his art. Perhaps channelling
his own troubles, Crowe is utterly convincing as a man tortured by a life
filled with regret and bad decisions. We really feel for the big lug, and
his dynamic with Simpkins is particularly affecting. When playing the
possessed Anthony, Crowe does something I haven't seen in a possession movie
before. Rather than simply playing the possessed victim, Crowe instead plays
the demon that's inside him, not just through vocal inflections but with his
physical movement. Crowe moves as though he's inside an unfamiliar body, and
there's something deeply unsettling in how he moves his massive frame in the
manner of a toddler who only recently discovered how to walk.
One of the scariest things a horror movie can do is have a child feel
threatened by a parent. Nothing is more terrifying than having the person
you rely on for protection turn on you, and Miller makes good use of this
dynamic by switching our focus to Leigh as she becomes endangered by her
father's possession. When the possessed Anthony starts spouting obscenities
at his daughter, including mocking the homosexuality she has kept hidden
from her father, they carry more weight than the usual potty-mouthed jibes
we're used to hearing in possession movies.
As the product of a gay man whose father was an actor who plunged himself
into his roles, you have to wonder how much of The Exorcism is
inspired by Joshua John's relationship with Jason. Of all the tributes
filmmaking children have crafted for their parents, this is one of the more
unusual, but the questions it raises regarding Miller's motivations in
bringing this story to the screen only make it all the more
fascinating.
